The Friday Five: Clearing Up 5 Rumours Surrounding NBA 2K15 PC

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! This is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to basketball video games, the real NBA or another area of interest to our community, either as a list of five items or in the form of a Top 5 countdown.

I’m doing something a little different for this week’s Friday Five, as I want to address a few rumours about the PC version of NBA 2K15 that are currently making the rounds. If you frequent the NLSC Forum, you may have seen some of those rumours discussed here. While they have led to some enjoyable and lively debate, it’s important that we separate confirmed facts from mere speculation.

Unfortunately, there are some websites and individuals out there that have no qualms about spreading blatant misinformation. Some of them simply enjoy riling up and trolling gamers, while others are resorting to cheap tactics to get hits and video views, at the expense of maintaining any level of integrity. As such, I’d like to do my part in putting out some honest and reliable information for PC basketball gamers. Of course, this information is all subject to change as more details become available, but right now, this is what we know about NBA 2K15 PC.

1. The PC version of NBA 2K15 has not been cancelled

I’m not going to bother linking to the website that erroneously reported this, but the PC version of NBA 2K15 has not been cancelled. It is still available to pre-order, and various promotional materials have made mention of the game being available on Steam; more on that in a moment. While we don’t know much about NBA 2K15 at this time – not a lot has been said about the game on any platform just yet – we do know that it will be coming out on PC.

There’s not much else to say about this, except that articles such as the one claiming that the PC version has been cancelled are posted simply to drive up traffic, without any interest in providing accurate and factual information. It plays on the concern that the PC platform will be left out, and does the basketball video gaming community no favours. It doesn’t even qualify as gossip, or reporting on a rumour; the website that has been posting these articles is purely making stuff up, while citing non-existent sources. Don’t pay them any mind.

2. We don’t know which version of NBA 2K15 will be ported to PC…yet

So, we know that we’re getting a PC version of NBA 2K15. But will it be a port of the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version, or will it be the same as the PlayStation 4/Xbox One version? Furthermore, will it be a complete port, or will some features be stripped out? Once again, the Site That Shan’t Be Named has posted an article “confirming” a 360/PS3 port, but 2K Sports has confirmed no such thing.

Several pre-order listings for the PC version of NBA 2K15 feature an identical price to the console versions, fuelling rumours that the PC will indeed be receiving a complete port this year. The presence of the Steam logo on promotional materials is encouraging in that regard, as Steam integration would certainly facilitate features such as downloadable content and Virtual Currency. It doesn’t answer the question of the PC version being a current gen or next gen port, but at the very least, a fully featured port of one of the console releases seems like a distinct possibility.

3. There’s no confirmation of the PC version being a “digital only” release

We don’t know which version of NBA 2K15 will be ported to PC, but the promotional materials have confirmed that the game will be available through Steam. As such, it’s obviously going to be available as a digital release, but will the PC version be digital only? Once again, there’s been no confirmation of that, and the mention of DVD-ROM under “format” on some of the pre-order listings has only added to the confusion.

With pre-orders already being taken, I expect that this will be cleared up fairly soon. In the meantime, we can only speculate. It may be digital only, or there may also be a retail version with multiple DVDs. A Blu-ray release seems less likely; granted, it’s not as though Blu-ray drives are rare, and a lot of new PCs do have them, but multiple DVDs or a digital release would seem like a safer route for 2K to take with a PC release.

4. No word on Steam Workshop yet, but don’t get your hopes up

As I mentioned before, as soon as we saw the Steam logo, it gave hope to the possibility of getting a fully featured port with NBA 2K15 PC. Given the enthusiastic modding community that has formed in the wake of the NBA 2K series coming to PC beginning with NBA 2K9, it didn’t take too long before the question was asked: will NBA 2K15 PC make use of Steam Workshop?

While we don’t have a definitive answer just yet, I would caution everyone about getting their hopes up too much on this one. While 2K doesn’t oppose the modding community, they’re in a tough spot as far as acknowledging and supporting it. Because of licensing, trademarks and whatnot, they basically can’t, so official tools and other Steam Workshop goodies seem highly unlikely. Don’t get me wrong, fingers crossed and all that, but with all the legal issues that 2K would understandably want to avoid, it would be wise not to get our hopes up.

5. Piracy has not been cited as the reason the PC platform isn’t a priority

Now, I’m assuming that piracy is something of a concern for Visual Concepts. If nothing else, I’m sure that they’re not particularly pleased about it, the same as any other video game developer. However, they have never declared that piracy is the reason for the PC version of NBA 2K being a lower priority, nor has piracy been cited as a reason for not porting the next gen version to PC. Once again, as of this time, there’s been no word either way on which version the PC is getting.

It’s just something that gamers themselves have put out there as a possible explanation for the PC version of NBA 2K not getting as much attention, presumably because other developers have cited it as an issue. Maybe it is big concern for 2K, maybe it isn’t, but either way, they haven’t made any public declarations to that effect in regards to the NBA 2K series.

The fact of the matter is this: the PC version of NBA 2K has been an afterthought because fewer people are playing it compared to the consoles. Put simply, it’s a niche market within a niche market. Nevertheless, hopefully we’ll be getting some good news on NBA 2K15 PC in the near future. In the meantime, perhaps we can take comfort in the fact that the bad things that we’ve been hearing are just speculation and misinformation.

I’d like to be able to provide more concrete information on NBA 2K15 PC, but unfortunately, that information just isn’t available as yet. Still, I feel it’s important to clear up what has and hasn’t been confirmed, as well as identify what is purely fiction or speculation. Hopefully, I’ve been able to do that here.

That’s going to wrap things up for this week. By all means keep speculating upon and discussing NBA 2K15 in the NLSC Forum, but always consider the reliability of the source when it comes to news and rumours. Thanks for checking in this week, please join me again next Friday for another Five.